Discussion: A tiny 10-Mila fitrepa

If you saw that the Men's race was very close but don't know any more than that, then you might be interested in how the last leg went down. I've written a little bit about that in my training web page. I make no promises or assertions about the (rather free!) translating I've done from some event reports--it be what it be.

Thanks for your thoughts on the race. I had no idea what actually happened. If I was Halden I would be upset. If I was SNO, I would have done the same thing.

It is kind of like Norway and Italy in the 4x4 XC relay at the Lillehammer olympics. Norway's Bjorn Daehlie lead the whole way then Silvio Fauner outsprinted him at the end. The next time they met Norway put a better sprinter, Thomas Alsgaard, on their last leg and emerged with the victory.

I followed most of the race. I lost video towards the end, so just listened to it even though I didn't understand what they were saying. From the radio control splits and the excitement in the announcers' voices I could more or less follow the race.

A couple of foot notes to the way the last leg turned out.

Tore Sandvik of Halden was intervued by Swedish TV (shown last night) and seemed to blame himself for not being prepared about which run-in shoot he was supposed to be in. A very humble statement!

Interestingly the exact thing happened to IFK Södertälje (predecessor to SNO) in 1991. Then a finnish runner from Angelniemen Ankkuri followed Melker Karlsson the entire way around the last leg and beat him in the run-in. What goes around comes around. Maybe in a few years when Halden has a slightly less superior team they will choose a similar tactic.

Mikell - where do you keep your training web page?

It's very hidden and highly secret. But rather than posting the actual url, I will reveal that it's easy to find if you just do a search for "swampfox training". That way you can probably find it pretty quick even if you don't have the url. I have to use that technique often myself, being unusually dimwitted.

Btw, I'm very disappointed that "fitrepa" got no comments! But that's ok, I'm sure there will be more disappointments to come. ; )

"Looking for the sun, running in the snow."

Hmmm... is "fitrepa" some sort of pun in Swedish? If so, does this mean the Swedish speakers were all groaning but too polite to comment?

I didn't have any problems with the video other than it started getting a bit behind the action. (I restarted it and it jumped 3 minutes ahead.)

As for jockstuffing... well... that IS the nature of relays. You'd better put a good sprinter on the last leg.

Or you could do as JJ did at the Pawtuckaway inter-city challenge, which is to get the other person lost, hide behind a cliff, and continue your race once the other person has stopped noticing you. I guess this strategy works better when you're not worried about other teams catching up.

I think it was pretty brave of Tore Sandvik to stop up for a whole minute though - given that you don't get any coaching while on an orienteering course (as opposed to in XC skiing.)

I thought about that idea of trying to ditch the barnacle, but I think it would be a lot harder in a situation like the last leg of the Tiomila than it was at Pawtuckaway. I was in a single elimination round, so it didn't matter how long I took, as long as I beat the other guy (my per km time for that heat was almost 20). And the way I lost him was to run like crazy until I saw people punching at another control, and when he slipped a few steps ahead, thinking he could latch onto them, I hid behind a tree, then blasted as fast as I could in the other direction, paying no attention to where I was going. I knew that the people were on a different course -- the control wasn't ours, and I guessed (correctly) that I'd be able to relocate better than my rival.

There were undoubtedly other controls out there that Tore could have found, but Petr wasn't going to take the bait of following somebody else, because he knew Tore was a sure thing: on the same unforked course, and probably the best orienteer in the woods at that moment. It's tough to ditch somebody who's fast if he understands that sticking with you is essential.

Now, if it had been a night leg, that might have been a different story. If you suddenly turn off your light and hit the dirt, you can become pretty invisible...

Would it have worked for Tore to punch in at the wrong final control, then try to ditch Petr at the chutes? What was the distance from the last control to the finish? (My guess: far enough that trailing teams could catch up) Or would Petr have worked it out before then?

Maybe if he could have found another control. But Petr might have seen the last control on TV, and might know what it would look like. Clever idea, though, and maybe worth a shot if you think it's your only chance. Actually, if he thought Petr wasn't counting, he could have tried skipping the last control, and turning back for it when Petr pulled ahead in the finishing sprint.

Surely Tore didn't need to think like that - from the video it looked like he was the stronger runner and would have won if it hadn't been for the mix up with run in lanes - or have I got that all wrong?